Numerous sales promotion systems are in use in the marketplace today. One common promotional activity is a sweepstakes offer in which consumers are invited to mail in entries, the winners to be chosen in a lottery style selection. However, this system encourages many non-buyers of the item being promoted to take advantage of the sweepstakes but not to purchase the item being promoted.
Another promotional system includes product producers mailing samples to home occupants when introducing new products. Commonly, an insert is provided with a cents-off coupon enclosed to encourage a store sale.
Conventional promotional systems have the disadvantage of being single step in nature with the consequential disadvantage that either nominal sums are offered, as in the case of a cents-off coupon, or, as in a sweepstakes, the consumer is merely one of a large pool of participants having no advantage over the others. Further, the consumer is obliged to wait for the winner's selection for lengthy periods of time as dictated by the sponsor's rules.
As can be seen from the above, current sales promotional methods are limited in application and level of encouragement to a consumer.